


Mission Log: 3861000 (or, Five Percent)

by scrxbble



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Campaign 01 Season 02: Fantasy High Sophomore Year (Dimension 20), Gen, Heist, Space Heist, Spaceships, i continue to be unable to write anything other than vibes, listen they're in space, set like. mid-canon? but it's an au, there are background relationships but. this is about the PARTY, they do a heist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28465998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrxbble/pseuds/scrxbble
Summary: The Bad Kids are ARC's best retrieval team (if you look at number of missions completed, that is, we're not talking about efficiency here). This mission - heist, as Fig insists on calling it - is ARC's most urgent yet. They are the best team for the job (because the Seven Maidens are busy doing something else).or, Bad Kids Sophomore Year(ish) Space Heist AU
Relationships: The Bad Kids & The Bad Kids (Dimension 20)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28
Collections: Dimension 20 Big Bang





	Mission Log: 3861000 (or, Five Percent)

**Author's Note:**

> my work for the dimension 20 big bang this year! i had so much fun writing this and talking to other authors and getting to do something outside my usual zone of writing so i hope you enjoy! 
> 
> of course endless thanks to my brilliant artist julia (@beefrlyslowgold on twitter!) who did a gorgeous piece of art to accompany this fic that can be found at the end! feel extrememly free to scroll directly down to that art (which is described for alt text). shoutout to them for helping me visualize just how cool space could be
> 
> there's a little glossary of terms at the end in case any of the things i fully made up out of nowhere confused you (i am taking suggestions for other things to add to it because i have been reading these words so long that they seem normal to me)

ARC Transmission Incoming.

Operative Biographies: The Bad Kids

 **Adaine Abernant:** Code name Oracle. A Hi El’Ven pilot and techie for the Bad Kids. Secretly started working with ARC during the takedown of the corrupt shipping company KVX due to her family’s involvement. Is now a fully fledged operative along with her sister, senior advisor Aelwyn Abernant.

 **Kristen Applebees:** Code name Saint. A human operative with KVX, known for their body modifications such as light-emitting freckles and clumsiness (she insists this is natural, but that seems impossible). Also helped take down KVX shipping company and is working on improving Solesian relations to other planets, as its reputation for being welcoming to all is not always reflected in its population.

 **Figueroth Faeth:** Code name Devil. Part Wode El’Ven, part Infernal from the fiery planet of Avernus. Her mother, upper level case manager Sandra Lynn Faeth, actively tried to keep her daughter from joining. It did not work. Faeth’s father, Gorthalax, is a powerful ally for ARC. Faeth’s other father, Gilear, is not a powerful ally for ARC, but he does stop by an inordinate amount (someone tell the security desk he has absolutely no clearance to be in the building. How does he keep getting in the building).

 **Riz Gukgak:** Code name Angel. Another ARC legacy, after both his father and mother retired (retired here means both “died” and “began working as a Solesian relations lawyer”, respectively). Known for his eye for detail and his easy-to-fill weapons requests (memo to Fig: a bass guitar sonic blaster is nearly impossible to make).

 **Fabian Seacaster** : Code name Captain. Third and final ARC legacy in the Bad Kids, though Hallariel was a contract worker only and Bill was in fact an enemy of ARC for a while. Half Hi El’Ven, half human, all insistence on fighting with a sword in space against lasers.

 **Gorgug Thistlespring:** Code name Wizard. The Bad Kids’ ship pilot, tech support, and strongest fighter using his combination omni-tool/battle axe (we are not sure how he does it because we are not sure what this is). Currently modifying the Bad Kids’ ship, the Hangvan, to include stronger speakers that will not break when orcish metal music is played at full volume.

End Transmission.

The planet of Solace was, by any account except perhaps that of the El’Ven, a sight to behold. Continents covered in lush orange forest or azure sandy deserts or red snow-capped mountains circled around a deep emerald ocean. Silver and black and glass-blown buildings covered the surface where they didn’t disturb the natural beauty, and large crafts carried passengers from one city-state to another - or further, taking off and landing from giant hover pads set in the middle of the ocean, flying into the deep expanses of space to the nearby twin forest planets of Ar’Bor’Li and Fall-inell or the travelling pirate city of Levi-Tan, made up of hundreds of spaceships lashed together with whatever space wreckage they could salvage from the thousands of crashes each year.

The most recent of these galactic travellers had just landed - a small craft, nondescript and slightly underwhelming to the workers, who watched everything from personal, home-repaired crafts to cushy state-sent airships land. This looked like neither - some small private company or moderately wealthy family sending their workers out on an errand, maybe fancying a souvenir from the lunar system of the Jinnasi planets. Its passengers, too, were easy to ignore: six figures stepped out, each in sleek black and silver uniforms that bore few identifiers except a red logo, unreadable from far away.

“Think they’re private?” one of the workers mumbled as he waved them past, not batting an eye at their height range. Solace was, after all, the most welcoming of the planets to people from any galaxy, or so they said.

“I just know they’re not anything like that El’Ven ambassador’s ship,” his partner replied, eyes glowing at the memory. “I mean, you shoulda seen it, Jem - all green and brown like those trees they have there, and the inside!” A low whistle came out of his mouth as the small cargo load - six small bags and one bigger case that was common in weapons storage - was emptied and handed to the six passengers, who nodded thanks and loaded themselves up, the two tallest handling the big box with ease while two of their companions picked up what must have been their travel bags. “I’ve never seen such luxury, not even when those Bastion City Ship people arrived. Plush seats all around, Jem. Plush.”

“You’re good to go,” Jem told the sixsome, who - strangely - hadn’t removed their helmets. Perhaps they needed a moment to get used to Solace’s atmosphere. “I’ve heard about the plush seats a thousand times, Wally, and I still don’t care.”

Five of the suited passengers heard a voice in their head as their small travel party turned to walk away. 

“I’ve seen the El’Ven ship. It is nice.”

The smallest touched a hand to his earpiece, then, with a glance back at the two talking workers, removed his helmet entirely. “Better than our hulking cargo ship?” he asked, large green eyes widening. His pointed ears seemed to perk up, too. “Absolutely shocking, Ad- Oracle.”

“Adaine’s fine, now that we’re back in Solace,” the first replied, removing her own helmet to reveal the pale hair and deep green, leafy-veined skin of the Hi El’Ven. She breathed in the fresh air and gave her companions a wide smile.

A muffled plaint came from one of the two carrying the large box, the tallest of the group: “It’s called the Hangvan, and it’s not hulking. Can someone get my helmet off?” they asked. “I can’t get it with one hand.”

The other two who had removed their helmets - a red haired human and a dark-toned Tiefling, half Wode El’Ven by the looks of her bark-textured skin - exchanged a smiling glance, and the taller human reached up to release the catches. “You got yours, Fabian?” she asked as she did so, glancing at the last of their companions. The orc next to her let out a sigh of relief as she removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm, though not before running a hand through white-streaked black hair.

“I’m fine, Kristen,” came the indignant reply from the last still-helmeted party member, despite obviously struggling to juggle the box and the helmet. Finally, Fabian managed to fling off his helmet, nearly hitting the goblin beside him, and his still-organic eye widened as he watched the tiefling fling herself forward to catch it before it fell.

“Blaze it, Fabian, Tracker’ll kill you if we have to get you a new helmet again,” she chided gently, handing it back to Fabian with a half-joking grin and politely ignoring a poorly concealed wince on the half-El’Ven’s face.

“Hot,” Kristen murmured.

“And Zelda says Sandra-Lynn is dying to have another win for their team, and a loss for us kind of counts as a win for them, if you think about it,” pointed out the Orc, hefting the package higher on his shoulder.

“It doesn’t, Gorgug, and I’m being careful, Fig. You okay, The Ball?”

“Barely,” huffed the goblin. “Just don’t drop our blasters on me.”

He danced out of the way of a half-hearted kick and caught up to Adaine in front, who was smiling at a screen on the sleeve of one of her gloves. The gloves, wrapped in wires and with a single blue orb glowing in the back of one, seemed almost permanent on her hands, and a flick of her fingers expanded her screen to show holographically in front of her. 

“Looks like we’ve got company on the ride home,” she said over her shoulder to the others with her, aiming the next question at the orc next to her. “Did Zelda tell you they were getting back today?”

Gorgug leaned forward to peer at the screen - their ship home to Elmville City-State, he presumed. Sitting in the passenger bay, already waiting, were five figures in suits like their own, their helmets off too, a wide array of faces and heights as they chatted silently on the video screen and glanced at the door occasionally. “No, it seems early for them.”

“If they’ve beaten us again, I’m quitting,” Fabian said, only half-serious. “How do they finish jobs so fast?”

“They work hard and don’t mess around,” Adaine replied dryly, shrinking her screen back down to her wrist and hefting her travel bag over her shoulder.

“Also they don’t show off their flying skills on the way home and get us trapped in Silen’s orbit,” said Riz from next to her, dodging another kick from Fabian with a grin. “C’mon, we don’t want to keep them waiting.”

The group hurried, as fast as they could with two of them encumbered by a large case, towards the meeting spot for their shuttle. Normally, since the mission ARC gave out were so varied and far-flung, there was no more than one group landing at a time, but it seemed that one of their fellow teams had had serendipitous timing, and five of the Seven Maidens glanced their way with smiles and shouts of greeting out the window as they loaded their cargo into the underbelly of the ship and climbed aboard, thankful for a relatively comfortable cabin and some company.

“Hey,” greeted one of them when they entered - a halfling who went by Copper, but who Riz knew as Penny, curled up on one of the seats and absently playing with her holophone’s case. “Glad to see all you guys unhurt.”

“You, too,” Riz returned, glancing briefly at Fabian before settling down into the cushioned seats. “Except - are Diamond and Amazon okay?” he added, glancing around at the five, not seven, friendly faces waiting for them.

“Katja got a laser blast to the arm and Antiope is bandaging them up in the med bay, but they’ll be fine,” offered a second member of their team - a horned and hairy Silenos, who blushed slightly as Gorgug entered and waved at them. “Hey,” they murmured, scooting down the cushioned bench to make room for the new guests - or, one of the new guests.

“Hi, Zelda- sorry, hi, Satyr,” Gorgug said sheepishly, glancing at the other team members in forgotten-protocol-panic.

A short Dwar’ven grinned at him from her seat on the ground where she was toying with a set of silvery earrings in her ears. “It’s fine, Gorgug, it’s just us. I’m starting to forget my name isn’t Jammer.”

“Me, too, Ostentatia, with Devil,” said Fig warmly, settling in with the girls between Penny and a blue skinned Jinn’asi. “What did you guys just finish up? If it’s not too _confidential_.”

Penny rolled her eyes and waved a hand. “Still cleaning up KVX shipping’s mess. You?”

“Same,” said Fabian as he rotated his shoulder with a half-concealed grimace, distracting from his facial expression by adding a gruff, “just a lot of work for a thumb drive of information.”

“A thumb drive and deleting the rest of their storage permanently from their ships’ memory,” reminded Adaine sharply, “which _you_ forget because you didn’t have to do all the system hacking. You just had to hack and slash.”

Ostentatia leaned forward towards Adaine, coppery hair falling with her as she toyed with her rings. “You know, the muscles and the pilots don’t appreciate the finer side of tech work, right? I had to shut down entire corridors of lights and cameras so they could sneak into one of their cargo ships and Fox spent the whole time complaining that if it weren’t for Quicksilver she wouldn’t have gotten anywhere in the dark.”

A dark haired half-elven, whose brown, bark-like skin matched Fig’s, rolled her eyes as she sat, idly petting a cybernetic fox curled up on a cushion next to her. “Come on, you could’ve at least let us use our sights. We’re lucky I sprung for Quicksilver’s upgrade last year to have night vision.”

“If you use the sights,” Ostentatia explained, patiently, like this was something she’d said a million times, “the heat trackers will get you even through your uniforms because of the power they consume.”

The Jinn’asi next to Fig sighed. “We _know_ , O, we just think that we could take them if the heat seekers got to us.”

“The whole point is that you don’t have to take them, Sam,” said a human, appearing in the doorway and sinking down into the cushions next to Kristen and Fabian. Danielle half-stood, a worried look on her face, but she managed to just smile as the newcomer continued tiredly, “Because when you guys ‘take’ people, Katja gets shot at. She’s fine,” Antiope added, waving off the questions forming on the Seven Maiden’s lips, “just resting.”

“Thanks, Antiope,” Sam said gratefully. “I’m glad she’s okay. And that everyone else is fine, too,” she added, glancing around the two groups, blending together in harmonic quicksilver uniforms. Most of them smiled at her, grateful for good company and the promise of rest when they arrived home.

“Yeah, we’re fine except getting whiplash from Fabian’s bad piloting,” Riz muttered from next to Kristen. A half-sputtered, indignant noise came from Fabian’s mouth, earning a laugh from the girls and a sleepy chuckle from Gorgug, who looked like he was about to fall asleep on a blushing Zelda’s shoulder. The ship lurched forward before Fabian could retort, and the twelvesome in the travel bay settled into chairs and benches for the short journey over orange woods back to Elmville, the small base of operations for Aguefort Retrieval Company.

“I don’t know about you, but I could use some photosynthesis,” Adaine murmured in the post-liftoff silence, directed at Fabian, who nodded and stood, still stretching one of his arms. “Fig? Wanna come bask in front of the sun lamp?”

Fig shook her head slightly. “Nah, I’ll catch up at base. Thanks, though.”

They drifted off into the hallway, Kristen following with Ostentatia to find food in the galley. Riz and Penny ended up slipping into cross-legged positions on the floor talking quietly, heads together, recounting their adventures, while Zelda and Gorgug napped alternately on each other’s shoulders and Antiope and Danielle did similarly, switching whose head was in whose lap every few minutes as the other read aloud quietly from a holopad of El’Ven poems, Danielle correcting Antiope’s pronunciation when she was awake enough to notice her errors. Fig hummed snatches of an old Jinn’asi song, her fingers tracing notes softly on the side of her sonic blaster, and Sam joined in with the melody whenever she remembered it, tripping over the words sometimes and making both girls giggle. Almost too soon, the craft was docking on the tall drop-off platform that they were all used to: A.R.C. H.Q.

“Well, Sandra Lynn is waiting to put another win for us on the board,” Penny teased as she clambered up to standing. “Maybe one of these days you guys will work as fast as us.”

“To be fair, you have an extra person,” countered Adaine, refreshed from the short stint in the sun-lamp. “And Aelwyn sometimes.”

Danielle barked out a laugh. “Yeah, but when Aelwyn’s here, all she does is distract Sam, so that just makes it more even.”

Sam blushed deep blue and stalked off the ship without a word, head held haughtily high, and the other Seven Maidens dissolved into laughter as they followed her, a newly healed Katja catching up to her to tease her more out of earshot of the six Bad Kids, who hesitated behind on the ship, Gorgug waving shyly at Zelda as they disappeared into the elevator down to the offices.

“Ready?” Kristen said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her freckles, which she’d had modded a few years ago to include tiny lights, flashed rainbow brightly, as they always did when she was excited (or, as they had discovered on one long trip, asleep with a nightmare). “I can’t wait to get back home.”

“You just want to see Tracker,” Fig pointed out. “But yes. Tradition?”

Riz reached up to grab her hand, and she locked fingers with Adaine, who had already connected to Gorgug on the other side. Fabian took Riz’s other hand, albeit gingerly and Kristen’s left, and the six of them stepped off the shuttle together, silently placing their feet down at the exact same moment, six uniform-issue soles making the same indentation in the gravelly landing zone simultaneously, and together they walked towards one of the pneumatic elevators silently, heads full of reflection on the mission, on their team, and on how lucky they were to be together.

Only when the elevator doors closed did they drop hands, Kristen reaching over to press the button for the twentieth floor and Fig letting out a sigh of contentment. “Never gets old.”

Fabian grinned. “It will eventually. But, Sol be damned, that first time? After that weird oozy planet mission?” 

Gorgug nodded with a shy grin. “And we were scared the ground would open up under us again, so we figured we might as well go together.”

“Because Riz was scared, you mean-”

“You guys didn’t _go_ inside the ooze! You don’t _understand!”_

“I was in the ooze too, The Ball! And I got sucked in - you _cannon-balled_ in!”

“To _find_ the _thing_ we were _sent_ to _receive_ , Fabian!”

“Right, because the very important artifact was down an ooze geyser, I remember. But you didn’t have to take the initiative so eagerly.”

Kristen and Gorgug were still laughing when the doors opened, revealing a white-floored hallway with glass-walled offices lining the sides, buzzing with muffled activity like the hive of twenty queen bees. Some offices were empty, with desks covered in holo-tablets stacked high looking lonely, but others had people sitting in hover chairs, making wrist-holo calls, or talking to various numbers of teams lined up in front of them. Halfway down, they passed a cluttered office with various weapons, maps, and photos hung on the walls; inside, in front of a similarly messy desk, stood the Seven Maidens, facing a bark-skinned woman who paused what she was saying to wave at Fig, mouthing something that made Fig smile and nod as they kept walking.

“What did she say?” Riz murmured.

Fig was still smiling as she whispered, “No idea.”

Fabian reached the office they were looking for first, rapping sharply on a glass wall and scanning his wrist-holo on a door-lock nearby that beeped and slid the glass walls open. The walls were lined with disorganized, overflowing bookshelves, and a thermo-pot on a side table nearby hummed at a perfect frequency for Orcish tea. A brown, furry head was sitting at the desk, flicking through hologram projections on the desk below them, and as they glanced up, revealed a figure about their age, with a snout-like nose and dark grey eyes, who leapt up at the sight of them, tail wagging cheerfully as they rounded the table.

“Tracker!” Kristen exclaimed, embracing them at a tackle-level speed. “We thought you were Jawbone.”

“He’ll be up in a second, he didn’t know the Maidens were gonna wait for you,” Tracker replied, squeezing Kristen hello and waving at the others. “I’ll leave when he gets here, Ragh and I were going to go over next year’s travel plans. I just wanted to say hi, and Uncle Jawbone has me filing more of his old cases whenever I have nothing to do because he hates looking back through them, he said.”

“Yeah, the other teams he had before us sucked, right?” Fabian joked, dropping into a hover chair languidly and absently rubbing his left shoulder.

Tracker raised an eyebrow, and their snout twitched closer to a grin. “He had me start with the most recent, actually, which would be you all and Goldenhoard.”

Adaine snickered.

“Anyways, off the record, how’d it go?” they asked, disentangling themself from Kristen’s embrace, though they kept their hand threaded through hers.

Fig settled in next to Fabian and cracked her neck. “Mostly standard - Gorgug got us there quick, Adaine did some tech stuff, Kristen and Riz were blazing _in-_ credible finding their way around, then the three of us-” she gestured to herself, Fabian, and Gorgug, who was leaning against the glass wall gingerly, like he was afraid he would break it “- punched everyone we came across and stole a hard drive and - what was the other thing, Adaine? The drive stuff?”

“We scrambled their history so they can’t just restore the information we took from them, and then scrambled our scrambling so they can’t just unscramble it or find out who did the scrambling. In layman’s terms, at least.” Adaine had taken a seat on the floor, legs crossed beneath her, and she was slowly removing pieces of her uniform, sighing in relief as she rotated her wrists and stretched her legs. “Sorry. Lots of travel lately.”

“I bet,” Tracker said warmly. “Jawbone’s on his way, but you guys should relax until- Oh. Here he comes. Sorry.”

Fabian waved his right hand jauntily. “It’s okay. Life of an adventurer, you never get rest. At least that’s what my papa says.”

“Did your mom ever tell you that ARC worked us dry?” Fig complained good-naturedly, curled up catlike in her hover chair. 

“No, Mama said she was mostly brought in for specialized things. Like a contract worker, sort of, but a very expensive one.”

“Spare us, please,” Riz begged. “At least spare Jawbone,” he added as the door opened and another furred figure stepped inside, his snout widening into a smile as he saw them.

“Hey, kiddos! Glad you’re back. I’ve already gotten Sel Abernant’s report, and it looks great, and unfortunately-'' there was a groan from Fig “- we have another task for you.”

“Already?” Kristen said, their hand coming up to clutch Tracker’s arm as if it could stop them from leaving again.

“Already,” Jawbone confirmed, settling into the recently-abandoned hover chair behind the desk and lifting a stack of holo-tablets, passing them off to Tracker’s free hand. “Those are good to go to records, if you have time,” he told them off-handedly, turning his attention back to the Bad Kids and pushing another holo-tablet towards them. “It just came in, and it’s time-sensitive.”

“How time-sensitive?” Riz asked carefully.

“Sel Abernant should rethink taking off her equipment, time-sensitive.”

Gorgug straightened up to his almost-full height, and the others bolstered themselves similarly, standing or sitting up straight, Adaine pulling her jacket back on, Kristen detangling from Tracker and nodding solemnly, Riz trying to look taller than his four feet. “We’re ready, Jawbone.”

Jawbone gave them a proud, bittersweet smile. “And that’s why you’re the Bad Kids.”

**THE BRIEFING**

Solace-orbit no. 386, rotation 37/410, 2100 hr UT

Bastion City Council Gala

Council Member Runce Buggins - connections to Bastion City underground trading company, ties to mysterious weapon [REDACTED].

You six will infiltrate the gala, retrieve Council Member Buggins’ holo-information, and retrieve the files they have on [REDACTED], then return to ARC HQ for debriefing and the next step.

The file pulsed on the surface of a holo-tablet in front of them. Kristen glanced up from her reading it, almost reaching for Tracker again, who was long since gone. “It’s… a heist?”

“Of sorts. It’s more diplomatic than some of your previous jobs, but it is similar in that we are looking, first and foremost, for information in order to stop the destruction of Solace or the galaxy as we know it.”

“And this… weapon.... how are we supposed to retrieve information about it if we can’t know what it is?” Fig asked, tracing the glowing _[REDACTED]_ in front of her.

Jawbone smiled grimly, his usual cheer missing. “It’s not something we like to say out loud, or even write down in the usual mediums. I have one way, though.”

A drawer opened with a hiss, and Jawbone took out a flimsy tablet and a small orange stick. Among the murmurs of confusion, Adaine raised an eyebrow. 

“A little archaic, don’t you think?”

“Sorry, what’s going on?” Fabian asked from the side, staring as Jawbone pushed aside a stack of holo-tablets to set the flimsy cream-colored object down.

“Pencil and paper, right? Ayda has some of those books in her library, but they’re super rare.”

“We don’t use it anymore unless we don’t want something recorded,” Jawbone said grimly, “and these days, if you say it or you type it, it’s someone else’s business. But if you write it-”

He lowered his head and began laboriously tracing strange symbols - letters, they realized, one by one - on the paper in front of him, and finally pushed it towards them as he had the tablet.

“Now don’t you read that aloud,” he warned. “You don’t need any ears picking it up.”

Fabian squinted at it, mouthing letters to himself silently, and Riz’s ears flattened to his head as he did the same.

_N-I-G-H-T Y-O-R-B._

“And this is… a weapon?” Gorgug asked from behind them, eyebrows drawn together as he looked at the paper. “Or just something dangerous?”

Jawbone shrugged, shoulders heavy. “To tell you the truth, kiddo, we’re not quite sure. You all will be getting us the first piece of information we have other than that name there.”

Kristen glanced at the rest, meeting their eyes solidly, and Fig nodded wordlessly, something passing between the six that didn’t need to be communicated. “We’re your guys, Jawbone. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“This gala is tomorrow night?” Adaine asked, already knowing the answer. “That’s not much time to plan.”

“No, but we’ve had Aelwyn working on it since we got it a few hours ago. She’s got it under control, and she’ll brief you a little bit more on the details, but essentially: Fig and Fabian are going to be our socialites, they’ll mingle and distract Buggins at some point. Kristen, Riz, you’re our trackers and our backup. You won’t be in the spotlight as much, but you’ll be at the gala in a less showy form. Gorgug and Adaine are on tech, with Gorgug backing up the others as the muscle if things get dicey.” Jawbone spread his hands out on his desk, staring at them gravely, and spoke slowly, deliberately. “This is not our typical job for you, we know. But you are the best people for this job. And, to be honest, it would be nice to get a win on Sandy’s team. They’ve really been kicking your ass lately in terms of efficiency and efficacy.”

“They have an extra person!” Kristen protested immediately. “A whole extra person!”

“And Katja got blasted, so really, their track record isn’t too hot either. We don’t have as many injuries as they do, at least,” Fabian offered. 

Fig glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, but kept silent.

Jawbone shook his head, his face returning to a smile. “You know, we do track the ships _and_ who’s piloting them at any given time, Fabian. I saw your little detour-”

“It was a five percent miscalculation on the gravitational force, no one told me Silenos was that dense!”

“All right, all right. This is a lot more serious than just giving me something to brag about in the break room. This… whatever it is could be a lot more destructive than we know, and if this council person gets out of this gala with this information, we don’t know when the next opportunity to retrieve it is.” He straightened, clasped his hands behind his back, and said, stiffly and formally, “Team 91918, do you accept your charge?”

Kristen nodded once, mouth set. “Yes, Jawbone.”

Gorgug copied her, though a grin was slipping through his serious face. “Yes.”

Fabian bowed slightly. “Yes.”

Adaine tugged the last piece of her glove back on and flexed her fingers. “Yes, sir.”

Riz’s ears flattened again. “Yes. We accept.”

Fig grinned widely, sharp canines revealed. “Blaze yeah, we do.”

“Figueroth!” came the sharp reprimand from the door, where the Wode El’Ven woman who had waved to her stood leaning on the door frame, brown arms folded and her dark leafy eyebrows drawn. “Please at least try to be professional, honey. Hi, Jawbone,” she added as she entered, pausing to give Fig a kiss near each temple to say hello.

“Sandy, good to see you. We were just finishing up.”

Sandra Lynn smiled. “Beat you in the debriefing speed, too, huh?”

“Not in between-job speed,” he countered. “They’re already off again.”

“Well, _I_ like to give my girls some time to _rest,_ occasionally,” Sandra Lynn said, her smile impish. “Just wanted to let you know that that’s officially the fastest job they’ve ever done in terms of difficulty to efficiency rating.”

“Kiddos, you should go see the advisors. Aelwyn, probably, or Jace if she’s not available,” Jawbone said, addressing the bad kids though his eyes were trained on Sandra Lynn. “I’ve apparently got to defend y’all’s honor.”

Fig started ushering people out, nearly pushing Gorgug out the door. Sandra Lynn settled into a hover chair in front of the desk, cheerfully pointing out, “You wouldn’t have to if they did less that needed defending. Nice piloting, Fabian,” she called as they left.

“Five percent miscalculation!”

A giggle came from either Fig or Kristen as they walked.

“C’mon, Fabian, think you can redeem yourself by finding my sister’s offices?” Adaine asked teasingly. “Surely you can’t miscalculate that.”

Fabian huffed as they approached the pneumatic elevator for the second time in twenty minutes. “We all know where the advisor’s offices are, Sel Abernant, but since you’re so clever-” He ushered them in and jabbed a finger at the button for the fifth floor, prompting a stifled snort from Adaine and a dexterous pair of jabs from Riz, deselecting the button Fabian had pressed and instead directing them to the fourth floor, where a holo-screen flashed in blue letters _Advisors and Researchers: Abernant, Douglass, Stardiamond, and Turtleperson_ . Fabian glanced down and mouthed a silent _thanks, The Ball_.

The doors opened to another doored hallway, though this one was a good bit louder and shorter, with a willowy El’Ven standing in a doorway talking loudly to a pair of researchers who were standing outside what the windows revealed as a technological lab, one of a few on the floor between offices. The taller of the two, who was covered in feathers, gave the sextet a wave as they passed. “Hey, Skrank, hey, Shellford,” Riz said amiably, offering a wave back as the tortle nodded slowly.

Fig gave a salute to the El’Ven. “Jace, we’re still on to talk about those expanded uses for my sonic blaster, right?”

Jace nodded back, silvery robes made out of some shimmery moonlit substance floating gently up when he moved even a millimeter. “Sure, whenever you’re free. Sel Abernant - sorry, Adaine, not you, your sister - is impatient for you to be off, though.”

“Right on, right on!” Fig skipped a few steps to catch up with the rest of them, who were already entering an office a few doors down. Sleek furniture was arranged perfectly around the office, and the woman inside seemed to be waiting for them, standing behind her desk, which held only a few things, mainly a thin tablet and a silvery bowl full of colorful hydration orbs, which Gorgug and Kristen popped into their mouths as they entered.

“Hi, Aelwyn,” greeted Adaine, offering a hug to her sister across the desk, whose pale brown bark hair and leafy green skin matched her own, but where Adaine wore ARC-issued uniforms, Aelwyn stood in a sleek black pantsuit, iridescent pinstripes shimmering in the sun-lamp glowing softly on her desk, an identification card on her hip showing a gleaming smile that she flashed as the group entered.

“Hi, Adaine, and the rest of her little friends, too! What joy.”

“We’re on a time crunch, we don’t have room for barbs,” said Adaine dryly. “The debriefing was mostly, well-”  
“Confusing,” offered Gorgug.

“Yes, we don’t have as much information to work with as we’d like, but I have a little bit more specifics and some fun new toys for you all - which, as you well know, Fabian, you get at the end of the meeting,” she scolded at the glint in Fabian’s eyes. “And you’d better pay attention, Fig, too, since you’re our faces.”

“Well chosen, as usual,” Fig said, giving Fabian a friendly elbow.

“You two are posing as - well, yourselves, mostly. Fabian, you’re the son of a space pirate looking to invest the family money. Figueroth, you’re an aspiring musician coming to this party to meet big names and maybe be invested in yourself.”

She continued, turning to Kristen and Riz. “The two of you are going to be undercover as waiters and general staff. Kristen, you’re bringing food and drinks around, and Riz, you’ll be greeting people near the coat check at the door, as a head staff member.” Riz grinned at that, his ears swiveling happily. Aelwyn continued, “Both of you are there to watch, listen, and be ready to move at a moment’s notice. And Gorgug and Adaine, you’re staying in the ship to be on tech, with Gorgug ready to be the muscle if need be.”  
“Roger that,” Gorgug said eagerly, and Adaine nodded with him.

“The plan, currently, is for Fabian and Fig to go, socialize, and at some point get close to Buggins. Once you’re in place, you’ll signal to Kristen, who will - hopefully naturally - spill a drink on, uh, Fabian, and you’ll make a scene and demand that your coat be retrieved because you’re leaving. Fig, you go get Riz to try and calm him down, and when you get there, Riz, you’ll pickpocket Buggins for the info. All the intel we have says that they keep the tablet containing his holo-information on their person at all times, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting it. Then, Adaine, you and Gorgug will download the info and send it straight to us. Fig and Fabian, you’ll get out once you get confirmation from Adaine and Gorgug, and Kristen and Riz, you’ll disappear as well. Got it?”

“Affirmative,” Adaine said with a smile.

“Good. Now, Fabian and Fig, your outfits are on the ship already-”  
Fig bounced excitedly. Her hoverchair dropped a few inches towards the ground. “We get outfits?”  
“-and Fabian, you’ll want these gloves to signal Kristen. Riz, you’ll need this download stick, and Adaine, your comms with us are being updated so you can transmit the info as soon as you get it. We don’t want to risk you getting caught with it, so the download stick is semi-dissolvable in any liquid once you finish the download, and Fabian, your gloves are disguised as a new Levi-Tanian fashion trend.”

“Fantastic,” Fabian declared, eagerly accepting the red-and-gold wired gloves from Aelwyn, who passed a small silver device to Riz as well, who examined it carefully with glinting dark eyes before slipping it into their breast pocket. 

Aelwyn leaned forwards on the desk and flicked through the holoscreen embedded in the top of the surface, shrugging as she reached the end of the document. She glanced up again, still serious. “You’re cleared to go on my end. Good luck, agents.”

Adaine reached forwards for another hug as her friends gathered at the doorway. “Thanks, Wyn.”

“Come back alive, kay, Addy?” Aelwyn smiled again, but her eyes met Adaine’s with a serious intensity. “Otherwise they’ll have to deal with me quitting to go kill whoever blazed with you.”

Adaine smiled, slipping a hand into her sister’s momentarily. “C’mon, Aelwyn, they need me to pilot back, otherwise Fabian’ll get us caught in another orbit-”

“Five! Blazing! Percent!”

Aelwyn laughed and straightened, flicking her fingers at a holo tablet to follow her out of her office. “C’mon, I’ll walk to the pneum-vators with you. I’m taking my lunch break.”

“Blaze it, I’d kill for something other than shuttle food,” Fig complained. 

“Don’t you get enough from your solar lamp, though?” Adaine said innocently.

Aelwyn blushed, making her cheeks emerald and the white veins stand out even more. She strode ahead of the group, though not fast enough that they couldn’t catch up with her outside the elevator.

“Sam and I are getting coffee, if you must know,” she muttered, raising her voice slightly to address the elevator. “Floor Six and the Roof, please.”

“As you request, I shall do,” came a disembodied voice, and the doors hissed shut.

“The talking elevators creep me out,” Gorgug said with a shudder. “They always mispronounce things.”

“Hey, my grandpapa provided some of the voice samples for that, you know,” Fabian said.

“C’mon, we’ve had this conversation too many times.” Fig bounced on her toes, the fire behind her bark-like skin glowing brighter as she bobbed up and down. “Who’s excited for dress up!”

“You and Fabian get the cool outfits, Kris and I are the ones who are dressing as, like, waiters.” Riz sent a glance at Aelwyn, who noticed it easily and raised an eyebrow.

“If you need to complain, you’ll have to do it later. I’m not in costuming.” The doors beeped and Aelwyn stepped forwards, giving another wave over her shoulder. “Ah. This is me. Bye, little sister, and her friends.” She stepped off the elevator, turning to give them an impish grin that didn’t match her proper appearance.

“Have fun with Sam!” Fabian called, impish himself.

“Yeah, tell her we said you two should-”

“Elevator, shut the doors, please!” Aelwyn called over her shoulder as she walked away. “And Kristen, shut up, please!”

“As you request, I shall do,” Kristen said, matching cadence with the disembodied voice. “Fabian, do I sound like your grandpapa?”

“Ugh, no. Stop trying.”  
“Please,” added Gorgug.

“C’mon, we should get to the Hangvan, or we won’t have time for a full sleep before we get to the City-Ship.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Fig said, pressing her face against the glass walls of the pneum-vator and staring longingly at the figure of Aelwyn, heading towards the mess hall. “But, like, surely we have time for food other than shuttle MREs?”

“Not according to HQ, Fig,” Riz said, though he sighed. “Though I could go for my mom’s cereal.”

“Or even, like, Gilear’s cooking?”

“Maybe not that far,” Kristen said with a laugh as the elevator doors opened, the roof looking exactly as they had left it less than thirty minutes ago. The shuttle was still waiting for them, though this time, there would be no banter with another team on the way out or much time for a solar lamp, despite Fig’s drooping hair and stifled yawn. She headed for the solar bay as soon as they boarded, Adaine carefully entering in the landing port’s coordinates into the autopilot and dropping onto a nearby bench for a nap. Fabian and Kristen did the same, leaving Gorgug and Riz to clear out the pantry on board of thermo-meals and dried nutrient orbs, which were easy to rehydrate but tasted like chewing on the wrong end of a holo-pen: poorly textured and, for some reason, fizzy. To the agents of ARC - at least, to the Bad Kids - they were accepted less as food and more as target practice for whoever next walked into the kitchen bay or fell asleep (excluding Adaine, who would wake up before it hit her and somehow redirect it back to you, something about isolating the ship’s gravity to make you the center of it, which didn’t work as an insult on Fabian, who loved being the center of anything).

Forty minutes and five nutrient orbs hurled at Kristen’s napping form later, they were back at the hoverpad where they had docked, and Fig, her mind and twiggy hair refreshed from the solar lamp, bounded onto the waiting Hangvan, Fabian close behind her, the pair going straight to the cargo holds and the waiting garment bags there. Riz and Kristen followed, unable to hide their excitement for something other than their ARC uniforms in any capacity, while Gorgug and Adaine settled into the cockpit, readjusting their chairs and settings as they usually had to whenever the ARC workers had had a turn on the ship. 

“You’d think they wouldn’t have to move everything to update one aspect of comms,” she muttered to Gorgug from the co-pilot's chair.

“Yeah, every time my parents use the GC18, they have to like, redo the radio settings,” Gorgug agreed as he double checked the launch mechanisms.

“You gotta get your own ship, Gorgug,” Fabian said from the doorway. They turned to see him, gala outfit revealed, and Adaine gave an appreciative “ooh” that made Fabian grin. “Nice, huh?”

He spun, revealing a black, metallic suit that made his white, birch-like hair nearly glow, with a short cape slung across his shoulders threaded through with the same red and gold pattern as the gloves that he’d donned, along with a pair of silent red boots and a pair of golden studs in his earlobes. He nearly glowed with pride and the reflective materials he was dressed in, and Gorgug gave a mock round of applause.

“Hope that’s for me,” called Fig from down the hallway, appearing next to Fabian in the doorway in a sleek, matte red dress that flared out at the skirt, with her own boots laced above her ankles and a complicated golden piece of jewelry that was somehow a circlet, earrings, and a necklace all at once. She tugged at a piece of hair that was slipping out of the complicated braids she’d woven in, and added, “The ti-ear-lace doubles as a comms device, too, so you don’t have to worry about me, Addy.”

“Yes, my earrings will as well,” Fabian agreed, “and of course, my gloves will signal Kristen-”

“Here!” came the shout as a third figure appeared with them - the cockpit was starting to get full.

“Oh!” gasped Adaine at Kristen, who wore a shimmering silver vest over a white shirt, dark grey pants, and dark shoes, and they had slicked their red hair back into a low ponytail. Their freckles weren’t flashing quite as bright as they did when she saw Tracker, but she still smiled widely.

“Not so bad, right? I was expecting a sol-damned apron, but I don’t mind the silver. Riz looks good, too, he was just sending a photo to his mom,” Kristen added.

Riz approached last - the only difference between his outfit and Kristen’s was the addition of a dark grey bowtie. “And Kristen’s hair tie will receive the transmission from Fabian once he signals, so they’ll be able to head over and spill the drink.”

“You think that’ll be too hard for you?” Fig teased.

“Nothing’s too hard for Knockout Kristen,” Fabian said with mock seriousness. “She’s the master of upturning things, from end tables to weapons racks.”  
“Blaze it, you guys, it was a couple times!”

“A couple very dangerous times.”

“ _Three_ very dangerous times, by my count.”

“Okay, three is a couple-”

“So then why are you and Tracker always excluding the rest of us? Didn’t that hot orc girl chat you two up once and you rejected her?”

“You’re insufferable, Figueroth.”

“Ooh, she’s pulled out the full name, watch it, Fig!”

“They’ll spill a nutrient orb on you!”

“You’re all going to have to find a sixth team member when I quit,” Kristen warned. “Don’t we have a gala to get to?”

Gorgug grinned and pushed a lever up into the on position. “If you all sit down, I can get us started. Takeoff in ten.”

“Ten minutes?” Fabian complained. “That seems excessively long.”

He raised an eyebrow and said cheerfully, “Nine.”

The doorway quickly cleared, and Adaine laughed. “Need to finish that count down?”

“If they’re not sitting, they will be now,” Gorgug said, and pressed the ignition.

There was a shout from the cabin that was barely audible over the roar of engines as the Hangvan launched off the landing pad and Kristen was thrown backwards into a somersault, landing with their head against a thankfully padded seat. “By Helio, do you know how long ten seconds is supposed to be!” Kristen yelled futilely.

“C’mon, strap in, or else he’ll take a turn quickly,” Fig called out, buckling her own seatbelt as Riz and Fabian did the same. “It’s only a couple seconds til we’re out of the atmosphere.”

Gorgug and Adaine in the cockpit shared a grin as the video feed from the travel bay played next to them, absorbing their interests. “Think we can pretend we have to shake a tail?” Adaine asked over their headsets.

“I don’t think we want them to vomit in their nice outfits.”

“Fine,” Adaine said, her hands moving quickly over the controls as they exited the atmosphere and the engines quieted to a purr, though their speed only increased as she plotted their course for Bastion City-Ship. Once they were out of the atmosphere, she nudged Gorgug gently. “You should sleep, I tranced on the flight back. I can take piloting.”

“Will do. Wake me up if you need anything.” Gorgug rose and headed back to the cabin, pausing in the doorway as he did, watching his four friends unbuckle and lean towards each other eagerly, like they hadn’t already spent a week together.

“Should we, like, play truth or dare til we get there?” Fig asked.

“Let’s do paranoia,” Riz offered.

“Never have I ever,” Fabian proclaimed.

“What if we all just sit quietly?” Kristen suggested.

Gorgug laughed. “Adaine’s sent me to bed. You all should go too - especially you, Fabian. We know you got grazed by that blaster before Riz took out the cannon.”

Fabian sputtered for a moment, glancing at the group in indignation, who only stared back. “I’m _fine_ ,” he said finally. “It was barely a scratch.”

“You haven’t picked up anything with your left hand in six hours, Fabian, and if you won’t let Kristen heal you, you should at least sleep.”

“Yeah, suck it up, dude,” Riz added. “Take a nap like a hero.”

Fabian narrowed his eyes, but stood nevertheless. “I’m going to sleep because I’m tired, not because I’m hurt, all right?”

“I’ll sleep too,” Fig offered immediately, unbuckling herself.

“Same,” agreed Kristen with a grin and a glance at Fig. “Let’s go. Group nap time.”

“Sounds good,” Riz said, slipping down the hallway. “See you all on the other side.”

The ship was silent - an unusual circumstance - as five of them slept and Adaine silently piloted, her head full of possible outcomes that she flicked through as she flew, frowning slightly as the negative possibilities flashed in front of her and only softening slightly at the successes. Jawbone had been right - this wasn’t their traditional mission, and they’d have to be lucky, or something like it, to make it out.

Kristen was the first of the others to rise, padding silently towards the cockpit and knocking gently on the doorframe. They smiled as Adaine turned to greet her. “How far?”

“It’s been about eight hours, we’ve got another one to go. It’s-” she paused to glance at one of the numerous clocks on the wall “- 1921 Universal Time so the gala will start about a half hour after we get there, which will give us enough time for getting through the city. Hopefully”

“Okay.” Kristen stifled a yawn. “The others awake?”

“I don’t think so. Riz, probably, but I don’t imagine he slept at all.” Both girls grinned at each other affectionately.

“He’ll be okay. His mother requested that tech move his holo-screen to the ceiling so he could at least be horizontal while he theorized.”

“Better than nothing. There’s MREs in the galley but Fig will probably want to wait to eat hors d'oeuvres at the gala.”

Kristen laughed, their freckles flashing brightly. “I’ll make sure she gets her fill.” They paused for a moment before gesturing at the empty captain’s chair. “You want company?”  
“I wouldn’t mind it,” Adaine answered with a small smile.

Fabian joined them next, stretching his mostly healed shoulder and smiling as he settled on the ground, leaning his head against first the wall and then Gorgug’s shoulder when he arrived twenty minutes later. Fig brought a solar lamp battery and the last of their non-MRE rations - a few granola bars that were barely above stale - to share, and Riz settled onto the dashboard where he wouldn’t be in the way as Adaine steered them towards a brightly lit amalgamation of spaceships, lashed or welded or crashed together into one large, bustling city, different colors of metals meeting at jagged seams all over the city and smaller ships zipping around the outside. A mess of different metals - steel, iron, alloys, pure gold in places - covered the outside, while inside steel-glass panels that were once voyagers showed residential areas, marketplaces, and a brightly lit dome in the center of the city, small pods approaching it and bright figures, ant-small, stepping out of them to enter the dome. The Hangvan and its six passengers approached a green-lit landing bay near the top of the city-ship, and they fell silent as they grew closer, the weight of their responsibilities settling heavily onto young shoulders, and even Fig’s usually running commentary was stifled as they came near the glowing emerald doors.

A voice echoed over the intercom system as the customs officer patched into their communications. “Origin and purpose?”

“Solesian origin, we have two guests for the gala this evening,” Adaine answered, having switched to the co-pilot’s chair for Gorgug to take over piloting again.

“Does your vessel downsize?”

“Yes, we would love to.” Adaine nodded to Riz, who pressed a few buttons next to him deftly. They let the landing dock staff lower the back end of the ship, mostly the cargo hold, off the front and store it down a pneumatic hallway with other half-ships, turning the massive ship into a smaller, more manageable sized pod for city-flying. Gorgug watched nervously, his shoulders tensing as half of the Hangvan disappeared, but he stayed silent and let the disembodied voice speak again.

“Fantastic. Right this way.”

The mini Hangvan flew down a wide avenue in the center of the city, passing pods their own size and smaller personal ones as they headed for the glowing dome in the center of the city. Kristen reached over to grab Fig’s hand gently, squeezing it lightly. “Excited?” they asked.

Fig nodded. “We’ve got this.”

Fabian stood. “We should change back into our outfits,” he suggested. “C’mon.”

Four of the six disappeared down the hallway, though not before exchanging hand squeezes and a few brisk nods, and as they approached the dome, Gorgug finally spoke again, letting the flow of traffic guide them towards the city center. “Are we dropping Kristen and Riz off first?”

Adaine snapped her fingers, bringing up Aelwyn’s extended brief on her holoscreen, and nodded. “There’s a road surrounding the dome and we pass a service entrance before the main entrance. They can tuck and roll.”

“Can they? Or, can Kristen?”

“They’ll manage. I hope.”

“Manage what?” Riz asked, returning to perch on the dashboard, his tie crooked. “The others are done, except for Fabian’s makeup. Fig and Kris are in there watching.”

“Bold choice, to do that while we’re driving,” Gorgug said, his eyebrows drawing together worriedly. Adaine seemed to care less about how Fabian’s eyeliner looked and addressed Riz seriously.

“You two will have to leave while we’re moving, maybe. Kris can manage a tuck and roll, right?”

Riz frowned and adjusted a cuff link nervously. “They’ll have to, I guess. If we don’t have any other choice.”

Adaine shook her head grimly and spoke over the intercom. “Kris, we’re approaching your exit. Ready?”

“On my way,” came her voice, crackling through a speaker, and they, along with Fig and Fabian, whose eyeliner was perfect, filled the doorway in a moment. “Go time?”

Gorgug nodded and stood with Adaine, after carefully setting the ship into autopilot for a moment down the straight street. They gathered in the cockpit, Riz still on the dashboard, and Kristen spoke first. “I’ll see you all back in here at the end of the mission.”

“You, too,” said Fig. “I’ll complete my task and come back alive.”

Fabian nodded. “Me, too. I’ll watch my teammates’ backs and trust that they’ll watch my own.”

Riz smiled. “Me, too. I’ll make sure Jawbone has something to be proud of next time he talks to Sandra Lynn.”

“Me too. I’ll give _us_ something to be proud of at HQ,” Adaine said, grinning.

“Me too,” finished Gorgug. “And I love you all.”

“Me, too,” echoed the others, and for a moment they stood, silent, and without speaking Gorgug’s hand settled on Adaine’s shoulder, and Fig and Kristen wrapped their arms around each other, and Fabian reached out a hand to fist-bump Riz gently. 

Only for a moment, though, before Riz sighed and glanced at Kristen. “All right, ready to jump out a ship?”

“Ready to what?”

Kristen, for their credit, insisted they could tuck and roll. Adaine and Gorgug returned to piloting, exchanging worried glances and occasionally peeking back at the side entrance, where Fabian stood almost wincing and Fig was elated.

“I have this tech that I’ve never gotten to use - it’s like a strip of electro fabric that functions like Fabian’s wings, but smaller,” Kristen explained as the ship inched forward. “It should help me glide forward.and break my fall.”

“Has this been tested? Like did Aelwyn approve this?”

“Skrank and Shellford did.”

“Okay, well-”  
“No time to debate,” Adaine said over their earpieces - Kristen’s hair tie and Riz’s bowtie transmitting her voice to them. “We’re coming up on the entrance - three, two, go.”

Riz, for his part, tucked and rolled. Kristen, for theirs, nearly landed on her feet - she would have, if not for their modified landing strip, which caught around an ankle and forced them to throw her hands out to break their fall, tumbling next to Riz by a half-concealed service door in the side of the dome.

“It did break your fall,” Riz mused.

“Shut the blaze up.”

Fig cheered inside the ship as they disappeared inside the service door. “They’re- well, they’re alive!” 

“That’s good enough,” called Adaine. “You’re next.”

“You are stopping to let us off, right?” asked Fabian.

“If you’re nice to me.”

“Yes, Sel.”

The pod inched forward towards the entrance, where a tall Orcish woman wrapped in bright scarves, a gaggle of Hi El’Ven wearing traditional silver-woven robes that seemed to gleam against their freshly watered green skin, and a thin human with a giant, furry Silenos dog next to them entered in file. Adaine steered the ship in front of the walkway and stood to hug Fabian and Fig.

“Stay safe?”

Fig grasped her hands, careful not to squeeze the delicate glove too tightly, and gave her two quick kisses near each temple. “Always. You guys too.”

“Bye, Fig. Bye, Fabian.”

Fabian nodded at Gorgug and Adaine. “I believe in you two.”

They stepped out of the ship as it paused, descending the rapidly appearing stairs before landing on a black iron walkway. Above them and around them, pods rushed towards businesses and houses, but in front of them only the glowing dome and the brightly colored gala outfits were visible, their own blending in perfectly with the glamour around them.

Fabian offered Fig an arm, his gloves sparkling in the light to match the excited gleam in his eyes. “Shall we?”

She grinned and accepted it easily. “Let’s do this.”

They walked towards the entryway, live feeds projected onto holo-screens above from tiny floating camera drones catching the sparkle of Fabian’s suit as he walked and the flare of Fig’s dress. There were a few organic reporters there, too, recording from iris-cams and waving at the guests for interviews, largely ignored. Fig, used to the attention, smiled widely as they approached the door and the tall Jinn’asi man standing there, deep brown skin matching his suit. His left eye glowed with a green electronic light as he nodded at them. “Welcome. Names?”

“Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill Seacaster.”

“And Figueroth the Infaethable Faeth,” Fig said with a bright smile. “Happy to be here.”

The green light scanned, flickered, and blinked twice - approving blue. His organic eye crinkled with a smile. “We’re happy to have you, Sel Seacaster, Sel Faeth.”

Riz didn’t look at them twice as they passed by him silently.

They entered to a room overloaded with light and noise - camera drones the size of space gnats twinkled with flashing lights, recording and photographing Bastion City-Ship’s elite as they whirled around the room, picking up the snatches of conversations about designers, past parties, future political decisions that could make or break the city being discussed as if they were passing fads. Hordes of famous faces crowded a wide dance floor and gathered around food tables placed along the outside of the massive, steel-glass walled room, and Fabian nodded at one of the walls.

“Transparent from inside, but not out. Clever, and fun.” Fig nodded in agreement - the city spread out before them, but they were secure in the cluster of well-dressed people around them, wearing every color of the human rainbow and then some. Ahead of them, a group wore matching gowns that pulsed different colors across coordinated electro-fabric, making their own light show to rival the iridescence coming from the laser display hung from the ceiling. A Silen to her left was in a gown made of what looked like pure sunlight, and Fig discovered it probably was as she turned towards it and her bark-like skin began to rejuvenate like from a solar-lamp.

“How-”

“I have absolutely no idea, but I want it,” Fabian breathed, drifting towards the woman, stopped only by Fig’s tug on his good arm.

“Where to, good sir?”

“Well, we have to find Buggins, but before that-”

“Food?” Fig almost begged. “That isn’t spaceship fare?”

“Food,” he agreed, and steered them towards the table.

Kristen appeared as they approached the table, smiling brightly. “Hi, can I get you two anything?” Her eyes gleamed mischievously and her freckles glinted as they added, “You two are such a cute couple!”

Fabian rolled his eyes, but Fig only smiled back. “Thanks so much, but he’s not my boyfriend. We’re step-siblings actually.”

“That’s not-”

“Technically-”

“We are not having this discussion again, Figueroth!”

“If one of my fathers is dating your mother, then that makes me your step sister, it’s basic family knowledge-”

“Fig, we are trying to blend in, and I will abandon you to devour these hors d'oeuvres yourself if you keep doing this.”

For two people who weren’t related, their eye-rolls were shockingly similar. “Fine, Fabian. Thanks, Sel Saint,” Fig added, giving Kristen a sly wink, her fiery blood glowing slightly brighter with conspiracy.

“Of course, honored guest,” they replied, bowing deeply, and Fabian nodded back, unable to conceal the grin on his own face. The pair took two appetizers each, nibbling on them as they drifted around the room, chatting animatedly for everyone else’s sake. None of the camera drones picked up on the fact that though they were speaking to each other, their eyes scanned the room diligently and their hands were never completely full, always itching towards their waists or collars as if to free themselves from their confines.

Inside the Hangvan, now parked a block away, Adaine and Gorgug listened intently, scanning the camera drone feed to supervise. Gorgug blushed as the conversation in the dome turned, well, personal.

“Well, he has to tell them at some point,” Fig argued. “It’ll happen sooner than later, trust me.”

“He hasn’t for the past two years, why do you think he’s going to now?”

“Because I’ll make -”

“Figueroth.”

The full name made Fig pause and glance towards where Fabian was gazing, and she inhaled slightly, though she kept a smile on her face. “There we go.”

A knot of people stood in the center of the room - Jinn’asi, El’Ven, and most strikingly, a tall tattooed half-Orc, their long hair tied back into complicated braids and their muscular torso not hidden by their outfit of white, wide-legged pants and gold chains. Next to them, though, stood a face they recognized - a blonde dwarf in military uniform, talking animatedly with a group of guests.

“Perfect height for Riz to reach his pocket,” Fabian said genially, a pleasant smile on his face and in his voice. Fig did not keep up her facade quite as well as she smacked his shoulder with her own, prompting a wince.

“Shut up and follow me.”

They linked arms again and started towards the group, meandering past a few more food tables and, halfway there, grabbing a pair of glasses filled with some bubbly substance that they only pretended to drink.

“I think this is just soda, Fig,” Fabian whispered as they approached, sniffing the golden liquid inside his flute.

“Better safe than sorry,” she murmured back. “Sugar rots your teeth.”

“You sound like Cathilda.” Fabian’s mouth sealed into a smile as they drifted towards the group, his mind racing as he tried to figure out a way to get into the knot of people. Fig’s eyes met his and they knew they were both trying to figure out a way in - how to get two young adults involved in the conversation of Bastion City council members? Fig was nearing desperate measures - holographically disguising herself as someone else had always worked before, when someone gasped near her.

“Oh, my! You’re, uh, Fig! Of the Cig Figs! Oh, my kids are going to go crazy!”

A Dwar’ven woman had stepped out of the circle, her black gloved hands pulling a personal camera drone - chunkier than the tiny gnat-like ones floating around them, but better quality pictures - out of a hidden pocket in her sleek purple dress. She smiled up through a black beard at Fig and Fabian, who stood in near shock, and kept babbling at them. “You are Fig, right? My kids love your band, they go crazy for it, is this one of your bandmates? Sorry, can we get a photo? If they let me meet you without getting a photo they’d disown me.”

“Um, of course!” Fig said, detaching herself from Fabian and straightening herself into her rock-star posture. She gave him a glance before posing - tongue out, middle finger up - for a few photos. “Sorry, you know me, but-”

“Oh, my apologies, darling! You can call me Pretentia, Pretentia O’Donnell, I was just so surprised to see you here! It’s such an honor, my kids are fifteen and thirteen and they just adore you. And you are, young man?” She spoke the entire time as she put her camera away, shook hands, and nodded towards Fabian with a jaunty smile.

“Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of-”

Pretentia interrupted with a wave of her hand. “Oh, Bill’s son! He was a friend of the council. Well, friend, well, I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, now should I? Your father was very friendly with, uh - Commissioner! Well, I certainly didn’t expect to see both Miss Fig and Bill’s son here, let alone together! Although I suppose we make friends with our own, now, don’t we? Ah, Commissioner Buggins!” she exclaimed as the gold-clad Dwar’ven man wandered over, followed by the rest of the group slightly behind, still talking but watching the young newcomers with a hint of interest. “Commissioner Buggins,” Pretentia gushed, “this is Fabian Seacaster, Bill’s son! You and Bill used to work together back in the day, didn’t you?”

The Commissioner nodded, a cropped blonde beard that matched his gold shirt and kilt bouncing as he spoke. Fig and Fabian nodded back, her hand squeezing his elbow tighter than necessary. The normally cool fighter swallowed and discreetly pressed his middle and ring fingers to his palm with a soft clicking sound as Buggins spoke. “On occasion. Nice to meet you, young man. Your father did a lot of business with us.”

There was a murmur through the larger group as Fabian smiled and stuck out his hand. “Very nice to meet you. I’m sure my father thought highly of you.” Only Fig could see the slight strain to his grin.

“Now, these two young people must have better things to do than talk to a bunch of old timers, but my gosh, what a lucky break! If my kids found out you were here, Miss Fig, and that I didn’t find a way to meet you, I tell you, they’d have me. We were just talking about that new transport system, and I saw you, and I thought, hey, don’t I know her from somewhere? And then your dress is so gorgeous and you’ve got those nice earrings and, well, something just clicked and I knew I had to get a photo!” 

“Trust me, it’s always an honor to meet fans,” Fig said with a smile. “And Fabian, I’m sure, would love to hear about the new transport system. He’s something of a pilot himself, actually, just like his pops.”

“Oh, well, then you’ve got to talk to O’Brien. Garthy, darling, this young man is a pilot! We just passed legislation to make sure that city pilots can keep piloting in the greater space, since of course flying in the city is different than flying from planet to planet. Do you do more gravitational piloting, or interplanetary?”

“Uh, interplanetary,” Fabian said distantly. “My mother and I travel a lot.” His attention was drawn by the tattooed figure sauntering towards him, a smile broad across their face. “Garthy O’Brien, I presume.”

“You presume right, love,” Garthy said, voice lilting with a pleasant, friendly accent. “You know, I knew your father a little, too.”

“Yes, sir. He was a good man.” Fabian continued to stare, until a gentle elbow from Fig, who was still entertaining Pretentia behind him jolted him into action. “We - that is to say, Commissioner Buggins, you, and I - could drink to his memory. I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”

Garthy laughed. “He never did turn down a drink. Runce, let’s, come now.” The Dwar’ven circled around to join them, just as a red-haired server approached from behind Garthy, carrying a tray high with a collection of bright red, bubbly drinks.

Fabian swallowed and waved Kristen over, betraying no hint of recognition. “Excuse me, Sel, three, please.”

Kristen nodded and started towards them. Fig half-turned, still smiling genially at Pretentia. Adaine grasped Gorgug’s shoulder for support a block away, useless to help. Riz stood at attention by the door, hoping that they were executing the plan like promised. Fabian held his breath, and at the last moment, Kristen, spectacularly, tripped, dousing both Fabian’s metallic black suit and the commissioner’s glowing gold in sticky red liquid - thankfully, they avoided Garthy’s clean white pants by the grace of some higher power.

Fabian gasped - both in shock at the chill seeping into him, and on purpose. This was the plan after all. He just wasn’t sure why the plan had to involve him getting absolutely soaked. “Blaze it! My suit!”

“Fabian, are you okay?” Fig asked, her eyes showing real concern over a deep urge to giggle.

“No, Fig, my suit is absolutely ruined! Ruined!”

“Sel Seacaster, I’m so sorry-” Kristen started, not laughing as much as they could’ve been, to their credit.

“I can’t stay here like this!” Fabian howled. “Fig, we’re leaving!”  
“Fabian, we just got here-”

“Please, Fig!”

She stifled a smile masterfully and stepped towards the main entrance. “I’ll see if I can find someone to help.” Leaving behind a sputtering Fabian and a calm commissioner, she strode towards the front of the room, eyes scanning for a small green figure, and she found him almost instantly where she had left him by the door, ready to spring into action by the nervous movement of his tail behind him as she approached.

“Sel Faeth, is there an issue-”

“Hi, Sel, uh, Hilda,” Fig said briskly, pausing only to squint at Riz’s nametag. He grimaced slightly as she read it. “My friend got his shit absolutely rocked by one of your servers, and he’s about to go warp-speed. Is there anything you can do to help?”

“Of course, Sel. Let’s go.”

Riz had to almost jog to keep up with Fig’s quick strides, but it was easy for them to find their way back to Fabian - a small crowd was hovering around watching his tantrum, and commentary was provided by the ever-running mouth of Pretentia.

“Well, this is just an absolute disaster! And you and Miss Fig matched so well, now didn’t you? I would absolutely get someone to clean me up and take me home, little Seacaster, sorry, I’ve surely forgotten your name again-”

“No need to worry,” Riz announced, pushing his way past people’s legs, his tail held high importantly. “What seems to be the issue?”

“One of your servers spilt what appears to be a Shirley Temple on me and the commissioner here, and I am absolutely appalled!” Fabian exclaimed, crossing his soggy arms and wincing as his shoulder twinged again.

“I’m so terribly sorry, Sel, and of course Commissioner Buggins. Was anyone hurt?”

“Not physically, no,” Fabian sniffed.

“He’ll be alright, love,” came the soft voice of Garthy behind them, and they bent over to talk to Riz. Fig held her breath almost unnoticeably. “It’s just inconvenient, you understand.”

“Of course, Sel, but we wouldn’t want to inconvenience the young Sel. Perhaps an apology is in order, Sel Keller.” Riz directed this to Kristen, who took a moment to blink.

“Oh, yes!” They faced Fabian and held her now-empty tray in front of themselves sheepishly. “Uh, my deepest apologies, Sel Seacaster, I promise it won’t happen again. I apologize so very deeply, Sel Seacaster. I would never get you wet on purpose, it was an honest mistake. Please, forgive me, I can’t plead enough.”

It was a long apology - just long enough for Fig to spot Riz’s hand darting in and out of Buggins’s golden pocket. She didn’t watch after that, didn’t see Riz slipping a small download stick into the port of a fancy holo-pad, didn’t see him tap in the code silently without looking, didn’t see him replace the holopad just as quickly and tuck the stick back into Buggins’s pocket without a second thought.

“Well, I think that should do it. Sel Keller, you’ll come with me. Sel Seacaster, my deepest apologies, again.” Riz gave the crowd a nod and, pushing Kristen ahead of him, wove his way back towards the front door of the dome. His hand stayed deep in his pocket, and Kristen’s freckles glinted excitedly as they headed out of sight.

“Got it?” she asked quietly.

Riz nodded nonchalantly. “Once Oracle confirms pickup, we’re all set.”

“Well,” Fabian huffed, thirty meters away, surrounded by onlookers and their target, who was none the wiser. “I still need to get out of these.”

Fig hesitated - they hadn’t gotten confirmation from Adaine yet of their success. “Fabian, I’m sure you should at least finish your toast to your father, shouldn’t you?”

Fabian glanced at her, eyes narrowed. “Figueroth, I’m all wet.”

“And you’ll dry, but this is maybe your only chance to talk about your father with Commissioner Buggins and Sel O’Brien. Don’t you want to hear their stories about him?” She gripped his arm, harder than necessary.  
“I’m sure the gala next year will provide plenty of time - and who knows! Maybe I’ll see you piloting around the city soon enough, Sel Seacaster.” Garthy laughed. “But, please, Sel Faeth, your friend does need a bath. We can catch up with each other again soon.” They gave Fabian another clasped handshake and leaned in to offer a quick kiss on each cheek as a goodbye. 

“See, Figueroth? We’re excused.”

“I wanted to speak with Pretentia for a moment more-”

“Fig, please.”

“Fabian, I’m not finished here.” Fig narrowed her eyes at him, and he met with his own glare, icy enough to make Pretentia step backward a touch. Commissioner Buggins raised a blonde eyebrow.

After two seconds of silence, their earpieces beeped at the same time with a quiet message from Adaine, transmitted silently through bone to their ears. “We’ve got it. We’re coming outside.”

In the employee break room, Riz accepted a cup of water from Kristen, and, instead of drinking it, dropped a small tech stick into it and they watched it come apart before their eyes.

In the Hangvan, Adaine and Gorgug exchanged a high-five and started the ship’s departure sequence.

In the dome, Fig tore her eyes away and sighed dramatically. “Fine, Fabian, we’ll leave. I’m so sorry to rush out, but we have just got to get him out of wet clothes. He doesn’t do well when he has a cold.”

“You know that was pneumonia,” Fabian hissed at her under his breath, shaking hands with Garthy and Pretentia again, as well as accepting well wishes from a few of the spectators who hadn’t already drifted off. Fig exchanged cheek kisses with Pretentia and promised to keep in touch, then took Fabian’s arm again - avoiding the wettest spots - and started towards the door.

“Wait, Sel Seacaster-” came a voice behind them, and the pair turned to see, shockingly, a human in the same uniform as Kristen and Riz had been in next to Councilmember Buggins. “Sel Worrell wanted to speak with you again.”

They glanced at each other and turned back around, affixing smiles to their faces. “We already figured it out, we’re just trying to get Fabian home-” Fig started, but Worrell cut her off sharply.

“Please. I like to know when my employees aren’t doing their job. Do you remember the name of the one who spilled on you?”

“Uh, no,” Fabian said with an apologetic grin. “Not at all. And please, I’ve forgiven them, so it’s really a moot point-”

“Keller,” Buggins said from behind them. “Sel Keller.”

Worrell raised an eyebrow and turned to glance at Buggins. “I’m afraid we don’t have any employees named Keller, Councilmember. Are you certain?”

“I never forget a name,” he said seriously. “Sel Keller, and Sel Hilda was her supervisor, I believe, right?”

Fig and Fabian both shrugged, their hearts racing. Camera drones swirling around them broadcast their faces to a live feed - one that the ordinary viewer wouldn’t see anything wrong with, but Adaine and Gorgug, inside the ship, radioed Riz quietly.

“Don’t freak, Angel, but get out. Now. Over.”

He gave Kristen a worried look. “Come on.” They rushed into the server’s break room, nodding at the lone worker who barely glanced up from their holo-handheld as they slipped towards one of the side hallways that surrounded the dome’s central room, and Riz radioed Adaine quietly. “We’re still a few minutes out. If they shut the doors electronically I might not be able to open them - you know how my luck is. Over.”

Gorgug glanced at Adaine. “Do we need to go in?”

She flexed her hand once - both a nervous habit, and letting her glove project the dome blueprint into the air, where two blinking lights in the underbelly of the building - green and orange - sped towards the service door - not quite fast enough. “I don’t know.”

“Do we want to go in?”

Another flex of the hand - this time zooming in on the red and black heartbeats in the central dome, and the gray figures that surrounded them. Adaine paused, flicked through a few calculations in her mind, and the dots on her glove started to move - scenarios flashing past them, possible futures detailed on the inside of the Hangvan’s windshield. Pale blue eyes watched the outcomes play out before them, knowing that there were only a few ways they could escape this, and knowing that all of the winning outcomes needed the whole team on site. It felt like ages, but it couldn’t have been more than six seconds before she unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled on a silver jacket, the red of the ARC logo harsh on her chest. “Yes.”

In the dome, Worrell frowned. “Councilmember Buggins, we don’t have any workers by that name.”

Fig fidgeted with Fabian’s suit jacket. “Please, Sel Worrell, we’re trying to get him out of his wet clothes, if we could just leave.”

“Are you saying there are people posing as workers? Why ever would they do that?” Buggins prodded, one eyebrow raising.

“Maybe just to get close to the glitz and glamour. Probably teens looking for autographs,” Worrell said, shaking back her sleeve to reveal a wrist computer. She glanced up again as Garthy spoke.

“They didn’t seem to want autographs - not from Sel Faeth, at least, right kids?”

Fig shrugged, and Fabian tried his best to approximate a look that wasn’t panic. “Maybe they just wanted to get a good story,” Fig offered. “I did some crazy things as a teen.” She left out the details - _like take down KVX shipping with the rich boy next to me, the very two people you’re looking for, and two of our most oppositely skilled friends except in piloting._

“Strange,” Worrell murmured, continuing to tap at her wrist computer hurriedly. “We may need to lock down the facility until we can find them.”

Fig drew Fabian near her, as if to persuade him to stay despite his wet suit, and, concealed by his frame, whispered into her necklace, “Oracle, Wizard, leave as soon as Angel and Saint get on and wait for us outside the city. We’ll find a way out. Over.” 

Fabian glanced at her, eyes hardened, wet suit forgotten. “Will we?”

Fig shrugged, embers glowing dimly beneath eyes equal parts determined and scared. “We’ll have to.”

“Sel Faeth, Sel Seacaster, do you mind answering a few questions?” Worrell asked sharply, bringing them out of their huddle. 

Fig set her teeth and raised her chin, doing the best approximation of her spoiled rockstar persona, hoping Fabian was tapping into his Bill-Seacaster’s-son energy next to her. “Sel Worrell, this is ridiculous. Fabian is absolutely soaked, and we need to get him in dry clothes and home to Solace as soon as possible, or else there is simply no way we’ll be attending this gala again. Two teenagers sneaking in for a lark hardly seems reason to shut down the facility.”

Worrell stared at her coldly. “Sel Faeth, with all due respect, if this was one of your concerts, I’d hope security would know better than to allow two unidentified persons backstage with no idea of their intentions. I’m sure you can understand the security issue posed.”

Fig released a breath heavily. “I don’t want to tell you how to do your job-”

“Good. Then don’t.” Into her wrist computer, Worrell spoke quickly. “We have a ten-eighteen. Shut down all doors and exits.”

Fabian tugged at his earring nervously and leaned forwards to say to Fig, redundant to everyone but the team listening in on his radio, “They’re shutting off all the exits just to look for two intruders? That seems hardly necessary, and time-consuming.”

As Worrell started to speak again in the gold-flushed party room, Adaine and Gorgug locked eyes just inside the service door that Riz and Kristen had entered from. “Looks like we made it in just in time,” Gorgug whispered, the omnitool end of their staff whirring back into place as a simple metal rod. His shoulders settled into something primed for attack, but not quite violent. Yet.

Adaine nodded and pulled up the dome blueprint again. “They’re a few hallways down, but there’s - see?” She pointed at four grey dots - figures not aligned with her ARC server - that pulsed gently in the hallways beneath the dome. “People between us and them. C’mon.” 

As they rushed down the hallway, not bothering to stealth, Gorgug’s staff appeared again as he flipped it over in his hands. The metal creaked open, the once-smooth surface revealing a series of thin metal plates that swung out, locked into each other, and slid into place. In moments, he held in two hands a battle axe made of smooth silver metal, a huge hole in the center balancing it enough that he could sprint ahead of Adaine as they ran, barreling towards the voices rapidly growing louder at the end of the hallway - two they recognized, two they didn’t.

One of the ones they didn’t was speaking:

“We really need to see your badges,” argued one of the beefy security guards, a blonde human, standing in front of Riz and Kristen. 

The pair, who had long since dropped the badges that read Hilda and Keller, offered shrugs. “Sorry, they’re in the break room lockers,” Kristen invented wildly.

“The break room doesn’t, like, have lockers,” the smaller of the guards said, grinning widely, showing off perfect Jinn’asi teeth as she tilted her head airily. “So we know you’re lying, and there are apparently two suspects who snuck in here for like, autographs or something?”

“Two?” Riz said politely. “Obviously that can’t be us.”

“Um, huh?”

“Well, you see, there’s four of us.”

Gorgug’s axe slammed into the larger guard, knocking him off his feet with a grunt and sending him slamming into the side of the narrow hallway. Riz disappeared as the smaller guard gasped and turned to lunge at Gorgug, but she was stopped from a heavy punch from Adaine’s electronically gloved hand, which buzzed with electricity as it connected with the guard’s temple and sent her flying backwards, nearly knocking into Kristen. The guards both clambered to their feet, and the larger one pulled out a small electric rod, advancing on Gorgug as the smaller turned on Kristen. 

“We’re, like, totally going to tell Worrell about this!”

“Bite me,” Kristen snarled, and they flung up their hands, a series of bright lights emanating from their freckles and glowing as the smaller guard pushed past them, letting out a groan of pain as she fought through the neon to swipe at Kristen with her standard-issue rod.

Gorgug took another swing at the larger guard, connecting with his axe again in their chest and bringing crimson blood to the surface of their pressed silvery vest. They grunted and threw a pair of punches at Gorgug, connecting each of them with a sickening burst of electricity, but their victory was short lived, as Riz peeked out from behind Gorgug’s legs - there weren’t many places to hide in the small hallway - and a green burst from his blaster knocked the guard to the ground. Gorgug impaled downwards with the butt of his axe, avoiding doing any lasting damage but knocking the guard out cold.

Adaine, behind the pair, hung back from the weapons as she pulled up her holoscreen and, aiming her glove at the still-conscious guard, typed in a line of code, and the three of them watched as her rod, still buzzing with electricity as she and Kristen traded blows, sizzled, sparked, and went dark.

“What?!” spat the guard, smacking the rod against her palm. Riz, behind her, aimed again. “Stupid-” There was a thud that wasn’t any of the Bad Kids, hitting the ground, unconscious.

“Thanks,” Kristen said, kneeling down to the body as the lights around her fizzled and faded. She spoke a few words quietly, touching the guard’s shoulder and the guard’s face relaxed - she was not in any danger of dying, just a headache when she woke up. Satisfied, Kristen stood and offered their glowing hands forwards at their friends. “Anyone hurt?”

“Gorgug, a little,” Riz volunteered.

Gorgug shrugged as his axe melted back into a staff and they started back down the hallway. “It’s fine, really.”

“C’mon, don’t be a Fabian about it.” Kristen reached over and placed their hands on Gorgug’s shoulder - they had to stand on tiptoe to reach - and their freckles glowed soft and silvery, light of the same color shining from their palm as the warmth and vibrations traveled through Gorgug’s seat, targeting the areas where his vitals were skewed and easing his pain from the punches he’d taken.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully. “Let’s get back to the Hangvan, yeah?”

“Yeah. Fig and Fabian still up there?” Riz asked, glancing at Adaine, who shrugged and touched her earpiece. 

“I’ll let them know.”

Over the gold earring communicators both Fig and Fabian wore, Adaine’s voice came again. “We’ve retrieved Angel and Saint. Extracting ourselves now. The Hangvan will wait for you. Over.”

Fig and Fabian, sitting at a table near the still-wet puddle of liquid on the floor, didn’t miss a beat in their quiet conversation as Fig touched her earring, looking like she was just resting her head in her hand for a moment, and said pleasantly, “Don’t wait. We’ll find our own way. Get back to the Hangvan. Over.”

“You all right, loves?” came Garthy’s voice behind them. “Obviously this isn’t the ideal situation for me to be hosting, but we’ll get through it.”

“We’re just itching to get home,” Fabian said ruefully. “I mean, look at me.”

“Of course you are. I promise once Worrell clears the facility, you’ll be good to go.” They paused and leaned in closer. “Of course, if I were you, I’d make sure your friends get out all right first, sure.”

Fig’s mouth fell open. “Our-?” She could barely form words, but Garthy just grinned and winked with one gold eye.

“C’mon, sneaking your friends into a party isn’t all bad. Just don’t make such a scene next time, yeah?” They winked again and, leaning in closer, said under their breath, “Although, Fabian, give your goblin friend a round of applause for his quick fingers.”

“You-?”

Garthy grinned and raised their voice again. “You know, Sel Faeth, I used to be quite close with your mother’s friend Jawbone. We, uh, worked together over many years, you see.”

Fig’s open mouthed amazement turned into a broad smile. “I’ll give him your best, Sel O’Brien.”

“Your mother, too?” they said with an even wider smile. “Sanda Lynn is a delight.” They glanced behind them and clapped Fig on the shoulder. “C’mon, Worrell’s about to blow a gasket, but you’ll be free to go soon.”

Indeed, Sel Worrell looked furious, but she raised her voice to address the crowd. “The two persons of interest are not in the building, so you are all free to go, but we will be in contact with questions to follow up soon. Please, if you have any information, contact us immediately.”

Garthy stood and, invisible to everyone but Fig and Fabian, winked. “Goodbye, loves. See you again soon.”

“Bye, Sel O’Brien,” Fig said, leaning in to give them a kiss on each cheek.

“Oh, and Fig, tell Ayda to call on the holo-pad every so often, yeah?” they called as the pair walked again, prompting another half-gasp from Fig and a grin from Fabian.

“My dad’s friends are cool,” he hissed.

“They’re my mom’s friend and my basically step-dad’s friend, so I win,” Fig retorted. “Also, they apparently know my girlfriend?”

Neither of them noticed the figure in front of them until they were stopped short by Worrell’s cough, an inch from collision. The El’Ven glared at them.

“Enjoy your evening, Sel Faeth, Sel Seacaster. Trust me when I say we will be in touch to ask a few questions soon.” Her eyes, narrowed, seemed to accuse them of something, but Fig just beamed and bowed low, not quite overtly sarcastically. 

“I await it with bated breath. C’mon, Fabian, let’s get you home.”

They walked close together as they neared the door, sheltered by the mass of the crowd all starting for the exits, heads low, not daring to talk for fear of the camera drones buzzing around them picking up their speech. Fig nodded to the doorman, who scanned them once more with his glowing eye and waved them through, marking their names off a list projected onto his prosthetic, and they walked past the reporters again, dripping slightly as they walked. 

“Where on Avernus are we going to find a ship?” Fabian hissed quietly.

“Someone’s driver has to be on a smoke break,” Fig said under her breath. “And you can pilot.”

He nodded next to her and they wandered towards the parked ships, some starting up as guests eager to leave climbed aboard, others still silent as they waited for their guests inside to finish the night cut short. “Feels unethical to steal a ship,” he murmured.

“Feels like our only option.”

“Ten o’clock,” he responded, jerking his head casually towards a small, flat, disc-shaped craft, where a tiefling driver was talking animatedly on his holopad outside and vaping a bubbly purple smoke in and out of a handheld cigarette.

“You want invis?” Fig asked, casually as if she were asking if he wanted to stop for coffee on the way home.

“Sounds good,” Fabian answered just as cheerfully.

Fig clutched his shoulder again and, reaching down to her heel, tugged at the tongue of her boot then stomped once. Sonic waves, too high for even a Canin’s ear to hear, burst out from her foot, wrapping the pair of them in complicated woven strands of pure sound that, to the naked eye, made it look as if they had simply disappeared.

“Jace and I have been working on that one,” an unseen Fig whispered in Fabian’s ear. “C’mon.”

The driver and his friends, video chatting on his holopad, were too wrapped up - and high from the purple fumes - to notice the door slipping open a crack, or hear the quiet footsteps of one pair of dress shoes and one pair of platform boots climbing the stairs. They were not, however, distracted enough to ignore the sound of the engine starting, or the ship peeling out of line and accelerating towards the alleys of Bastion City.

“Hey!” he shouted, holopad slipping from his fingers, but his yell was lost in the exhaust as Fig, inside the ship, radioed Adaine.

“Hey, we’re on our way to the rendezvous. Fabes is piloting a stolen ship, so hopefully-”

The sound of sirens wailed behind them, and Fig cursed. “Blazing Bastion City Watch! They’re so blazing fast.”

“Language, Figueroth,” came a voice that sounded like Kristen. “And Fabian, watch out for planets.”

“Five blazing percent,” Fabian muttered, deftly swinging the ship down a side road and away from the sirens following them. “Five blazing percent. I’ll show you five percent-”

“Fabian, wait-”

The ship screeched as Fabian hit the accelerator and wove through streets, zipping past bigger crafts and citizens of Bastion City, flying vertically and straight down and, only very occasionally, at a normal altitude. Fig barely held herself into the pilot’s chair as they whipped past a neighborhood at nearly the speed of sound and just as quickly wove through warehouses.

“We’re all the way on the port side of the city, Fabes!” she shouted. “The Hangvan is out the starboard entrance!”

“Trust me, Fig, I’ve got this!”

Lights flashed past them and behind them as Fabian U-turned so fast Fig thought she might vomit, then sped down the street straight towards the bulky cargo vehicles the City Watch travelled in. Fig yelled in delight as they wove directly through them, their small ship giving them the advantage of dexterity over the larger ships as Adaine radioed back to them, voice crackling with static and worry.

“They’re closing the city doors, Fabian. About seventy-five percent open right now.”

“Lockdown,” Fig muttered. “Hope they don’t know it’s us.”

“ARC can do damage control. Say we were just pulling a stupid prank, especially since you’re supposedly some rebellious rockstar.”

“I am a rebellious rockstar.”

“Yeah, and I’m a spoiled rich boy,” Fabian retorted, dropping low to avoid a searching beam of light and jerking his head towards a sliver of light coming through the shops they were near. “There are the doors.”

Fig squinted at the glimpses she got of them as they wove through alleyways and back streets, and felt her stomach drop. “Shit, they look low.”

“Lucky for us skinny crafts are the fashion right now,” Fabian said, though a bead of sweat on his forehead trickled closer to the truth.

“Doors are at forty percent, you two,” Adaine warned over their comms.

“C’mon, little guy,” Fig pleaded. “You can do it!”  
“You’d better be talking to the ship.” 

They whizzed past a huge, brightly lit mall, went high above a lane jammed by some sort of street festival, and finally had a clear shot at the doors, closing ever faster.

“Twenty percent, guys,” Adaine said as they neared it, Fabian steering at a ninety degree angle, Fig hanging onto her chair with the tips of her fingers, once fancy hair coming loose from its braids. “Ten percent.”

Fabin gritted his teeth, and his knuckles went pale on the controls as the ship sped forward, creaking under the exertion. “C’mon, baby girl, c’mon,” he whispered, half prayer, half encouragement. 

Buildings zipped past, too fast to even register features. The gap between the doors seemed all too slim, and Adaine’s voice came through again, thick with panic.

“Fabian, the doors are only-”

“Five percent,” he muttered with a grin, and with another thrust of the accelerator, they passed cleanly through the gap and clattered, like an abandoned frisbee, onto the loading dock where Riz and Kristen waited, suited up. Kristen slammed her earpiece and spoke quickly, while Riz leapt to shut the cargo doors and the entire Hangvan shuddered with the labor of leaving. Fig, breathless, patted Fabian on the shoulder, and he gave her a smug smile.

“Told you all I could blazing pilot.”

“Nice going, Fabian. Get in the main hold,” Gorgug said over comms. “We’ve got company, and Oracle needs to take care of it.”

“Coming, pilot.” Fabian waited for the doors to close and the atmosphere to stabilize before he unlocked the ship doors, bounding down the stairs and towards the co-pilot's chair, while Fig, Kristen, and Riz hurried close behind him, turning down a separate hallway and finding Adaine at the ship’s weapons, hands already on the controllers.

“If they send anyone after us, I’ve got us,” she said grimly.

Kristen touched her shoulder. “We’ve got you if they do.”

Two ships peeled off the larger city - small City Watchdogs, sent to retrieve intel. Gorgug, in the pilot’s chair, worked quickly and deftly to swing their craft around, giving Adaine a clear shot. Fig, from her position, gave Adaine a reassuring smile, and Kristen’s freckles glowed so brightly the other three teammates in the room felt like they could do anything. Riz, for his part, had sat down at the other gunner.

“Aim for the weapons,” Adaine said. “We just want to incapacitate them and stop them from shooting us.”

“Roger, Oracle. You tell me when.”

Gorgug and Fabian traded places effortlessly in the cockpit, each of them working so quickly it was like they had four arms each. The ship hovered, paused, and accelerated just enough.

“Now,” Adaine said, and she fired, a blast of green light arcing perfectly through the blasters of the City Watch ships. Riz angled his towards the ship again, and before he could fire, Adaine pushed it a millimeter left. He gave her a nod and fired, too, his blast white as the sun, catching the second ship off guard and hitting their weapons perfectly to take them out. 

“Now, Gorgug!” Adaine cried over communications, and the Hangvan lurched forwards as the auxiliary engines alit and sent them barrelling into space. A whoop came from Fig, who had managed to grab the back of Riz’s chair as Kristen stumbled backwards into the wall. The Hangvan rocketed forwards, stars lengthening around them as they hurtled towards Solace, and Fabian exchanged a high five with Gorgug in the cockpit. 

“Go change,” Gorgug said to him as their speed stabilized. “I’ll pilot the Hangvan.”

“Okay. Call if you need anything.”

No one called for him in eight hours, and when Fig stopped by to check, Fabian was asleep in his pod-room - half-upright on his hover-bed, but it was better than nothing. He only got shaken awake by Riz when the emerald seas of Solace and their usual landing pad were within view and, despite his grumbling about missing the trip, he seemed happy to wait with the others as Gorgug flew them towards the landing pad.

Two familiar voices greeted them as they decrafted.

“I’m telling you, they were just some punk kids! No one got hurt.”

“Punk kids can’t avoid the City Watch like that! It’s gotta be something else, Jem,” the other worker replied. “You six are good to go. Thanks for using SMTA.”

Kristen’s helmet was the first off as they walked away. “Think the story’ll last long?”

“Nah, they don’t even know it was Fig and I. ARC’s got PR out the exhaust pipe working the news the other way,” Fabian said, removing his helmet easily without a cargo bag and an injured arm.

“I just want to debrief with Jawbone and go home,” Fig complained, still somehow cranky after sleeping most of the way home.

“C’mon, HQ is less than an hour away,” Gorgug said soothingly. “And then we’ll get some real food from the caf, okay?”

“Please,” Riz said, his tail bouncing as they rushed towards the ARC ship, arguing goodnaturedly over which one of them would get the seats in the back that were the most fun to sleep on and who got the last half-edible pre-made meal in the ship’s galley fridge. Finally, for the second time in what felt like as many days, they alighted on the roof of ARC HQ again, and Kristen said again, “Ready?”  
“Tradition,” Fig replied, locking hands with Gorgug next to her, who held onto Adaine, who had to reach up to grab Fabian’s hand, who took Riz’s outstretched hand with no wincing whatsoever, who grabbed Kristen’s hand and, in unison, they stepped out towards the open air, towards the thrill of another successful mission, towards their next assignment. Their boots crunched on the gravel of the roof, and they walked silently towards the elevator, pulling each other in close for a hug right before the pneumatic doors opened, each of their heads filled with indescribable thoughts.

“Although,” Fig grumbled as they detached themselves and piled into the elevator again, Fabian still yawning, “if we don’t get a break this time, I swear I’m quitting.”

“Oh, for sure,” Adaine agreed. “I’m not doing another mission for a week. Or a month.”

“C’mon, what would we even do with a whole month off?” Riz said.

Kristen’s eyes went dreamy. “A whole month-”

“Too late,” Gorgug said, as the pneumatic doors opened and Jawbone stood in front of them, a file in his hand, a sheepish smile on his face.

“C’mon, Bad Kids. Briefing time.”

_Glossary of Terms/Important People_

**Sel:** A gender-neutral honorific used in Common.

 **Solace** : An Earth-like planet, home to a series of City-States that are reputed for being welcoming to all.

 **El’Ven:** A race of photosynthetic tree people who live on one of two moons near Solace. The Wode El’Ven are known for their bark-like skin, whereas the Hi El’Ven have more leaf-like skin textures. Both of them are nomadic traditionally. There is a high El’Ven population in Solace.

 **Silen:** A planet of satyr-like people (the Silenos) close to Solace (too close, according to one Sel Seacaster).

 **Jinn’asi:** Anyone hailing from one of four Jinn planets, each of which have very different atmospheres and environments that result in differently adapted natives.

 **Bastion City-Ship:** A large floating city made of many ships lashed together that usually stays close to Solace, as it is deeply connected to it through trade.

 **Levi-Tan:** A planet-sized City-Ship, larger than Bastion City-Ship by a hundred fold, that is capable of travel around the Solesian solar system and beyond - as it is made of hundreds of thousands of spacecrafts, it is not reliant on any one star for light, warmth, etc. Known for a high population of space pirates.

 **Aguefort Retrieval Company:** A Solesian based space retrieval company, whose operatives deal with ensuring galactic peace for all, usually underground. Consisting of case managers such as Jawbone O’Shaughnessy, Sandra Lynn Faeth, and [REDACTED] others; advisors and scientists such as Aelwyn Abernant and Skrank Douglass; and field operatives, who usually work in teams such as those dubbed the Seven Maidens and the Bad Kids. Known for taking down KVX shipping company and their dubious business practices. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!! go give mod dia, mod poppy, and all the big bang fics some love because this was a long time coming and i'm so proud of everyone!!


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